The importance of a NAS for the backup of your data

On various occasions we have noted, on these pages, the i the importance of a correct approach to archiving and backing up data stored on your devices. PCs and smartphones contain more and more of them, with the risk that damage (or loss) of one of our devices can lead to irreparable data loss.

Cloud backup is undoubtedly an effective strategy : services such as Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive allow you to automate backup in real time on the cloud, with access to a limited storage space in the presence of free plans or much larger archives through the subscription of a monthly subscription.

The installation of a NAS, at home or in your personal office , not only allows you to offer further local redundancy to the data contained in your devices of daily use but also of storing an overall volume of data far greater than that accessible via the cloud . The problems to be solved are therefore not only related to data redundancy, but also to how to manage them in large quantities.

Synology DS 220 + manage our media files

In the Taiwanese product range Synology the new model DS 220 + well meets the typical needs of home users and small offices , thanks to the possibility of installing up to 2 3.5 hard drives inches. The availability of increasingly high capacity drives at affordable costs makes it easy to set up an especially important storage space with this NAS. It is always preferable to use two identical mirrored hard drives or Raid 1 , so that one is a mirror copy of the ‘other being able to replace it in case of malfunction without this affecting the continuity of services.

The construction is the classic one of NAS Synology from 2 units : the front panel is fixed by pressure and once removed allows you to have access to the slides of the two hard disks, also such as not to require the use of any type of tool for their correct configuration. In the back there are two Gigabit LAN ports , together with a USB Type-A 3.0 connector combined with one identical present in the front. The power supply is external to the structure, a model that in terms of size and dimensions is similar to that of a thin notebook.

Under the body we find an Intel processor Celeron J 4025 , unit dual core with 2GHz clock frequency that can be pushed up to 2.9GHz clock as maximum. The combination with 2GB of DDR4 memory allows the system to ensure a prompt response to the various commands related to data sharing and management, but it is possible to expand the quantity up to a total of 6GB using the slot available on the small motherboard. Synology provides a compatibility list on its website for a large number of hard drives that can be installed in DS 220 +: you get up to 16 TB capacity with the more expensive models, thanks to which you can ensure high storage space even by maintaining redundancy in Raid 1 mode.

Synology DS 220 + is meant for the home user who needs storage space safe for your data . Hence the availability of 3 interesting utilities for their management, integrated within the NAS operating system:

• Audio Station : manages and sorts audio tracks, sending them for playback to Google Cast enabled devices.
• Moments : intelligently manage photos. organizing them to create scrapbooks.
• Video Station : organize all the video streams present in the NAS, from movies to TV series to personal movies so they can easily be streamed to PCs, smartphones and media players.

Synology provides specific Apps for mobile devices with which you can quickly access the different types of multimedia contents that are stored on the NAS.

Easy to set up, ready to use right away

NAS configuration is done using the utility Synology Assistant : You need to install at least 1 hard disk in the drive so that the Synology DiskManager operating system